Romans & Galatians & 1st Thessalonians: Combined Works

This work brings together, now in its 2nd edition, revised, corrected and expanded, three distinct works. The first, on Romans, had already been published before. Now, I bring together that first work with the commentary on the Letter to the Galatians and also on the 1st Letter to the Thessalonians, presenting the three commentaries in the same volume. Only Thessalonians was not published as a separate volume. The demand for this procedure arises from the well-known fact that these letters of the Apostle Paul are fundamental to evangelical preaching. Galatians and Romans illuminate each other. This strong theological bond was perceived in the Reformation movement that occurred in Europe in the 16th century. However, despite the enormous contribution of the Reformation movement, the publication of new works that emphasize the semi-Pelagian and Calvinist hermeneutics in relation to the theme of faith in Christ, point to the insufficiency of the approach to the theology of the Apostle Paul. The letter to the Thessalonians, on the other hand, points out, in an incipient way, many of Paul's positions that would later be consolidated in the writing to the Romans. Incisively, we point out that the theology developed by the apostle Paul did not, in fact, become victorious in the history of the Church. The simplicity of the power of Pauline theology came up against several difficulties in understanding, including cultural ones. The freedom of the gospel, let us say, is something simple in theory. In practice, people prefer to be imprisoned. Christianity, as it became institutionalized, lost its ties to the radical message of the cross as the foundation for preaching the good news. Furthermore, although there are other important letters by Paul that could comprise a volume of related commentaries, I believe that the theological analysis of these three letters is essential because of the theme that is presented. Romans is a more "thought-out" letter, and Galatians is a letter that overflows with precision the theme of the gospel that is being announced by Paul. These are visceral letters of theology, if it is possible to put it that way. Thessalonians is not far from such theological bubbling. I wrote all these comments for the reader. May the reading confront the superficial interpretations of biblical texts. May the theology of the apostle Paul be provocative and, above all, liberating. This world lives under many enormous and heavy chains, and more than ever it is necessary to proclaim the freedom of the gospel. These chains imprison people around money, sexuality, beliefs, and fear. The Gospel of Jesus is liberating from all chains, and it is essential to proclaim this. This is the motivation for writing these comments.